No Presenters this week... No class on thursday!
february 15 |
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Word is Bond: An Introduction to Black Rhetoric and Language (course title)
“And If You Don’t Know, Now You Know”: Black Language and Rhetoric as the Comeback from My Educational Withholding |
A Typical Week
- Tuesdays are workshop days
- Thursdays are panels for the Hype Presentations & homework days
For More on the Linguistic Features of Black Language III. Project #2: The Graphic Organizer
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IV. IMAGINING SPOTSWOOD "Spots" RICE
Black Jeremiad: Black rhetors present themselves as God's Chosen people who have the moral and Christian fortitude to stand against racial oppression and lead the struggle for justice.
On September 3, 1864, Spottswood Rice wrote two letters as a Union Army Soldier: 1) to his children still held as slaves of a Missouri woman Kitty Diggs; 2) a letter to Kitty Diggs herself.
Before we read what Spottswood Rice actually wrote, imagine this: You are a UNION ARMY SOLDIER who had been enslaved.
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V. Ending the Theme (in Memory of Spots)
VI. FINAL LESSONS ON SLAVERY & Black ORATORY
Prince hall, John Gloucester, Nathaniel Paul, David Walker, Mariah stewart, Theodore wright, james mccune smith, Frederick Douglass, henry Highland garnet, Lucy Stanton, Jermain Wesley Loguen, Frances Ellen Watkins
Choose any ONE address below and comment in chat or out loud. Please note that all addresses come from BlackPast.org.
1. (1797) PRINCE HALL SPEAKS TO THE AFRICAN LODGE IN CAMBRIDGE, MA
Prince Hall spent the first thirty-five years of his life enslaved in Barbados. He moved to Boston with William Hall (his "owner") and founded the black Masonic Lodge in the United States, the provisional African Lodge No. 1, the first black Masonic lodge in the United States. He was also a Methodist minister." Click here for speech.
2. (1811) JOHN GLOUCESTER, “DEDICATION OF THE FIRST AFRICAN PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF PHILADELPHIA”
In 811, Reverend John Gloucester became the founder and Pastor of the first house of worship for African American Presbyterians in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He had this address circulated throughout the neighborhood via 200 flyers (the cost of that would be equal to a little over $4,500 in today’s money). Click here for the address.
3. (1827) REV. NATHANIEL PAUL HAILS THE END OF SLAVERY IN NEW YORK
In 1827 Reverend Nathaniel Paul, a minister in Albany, New York, gave an address on July 5 remarking on the abolition of slavery in the state od New York. Click here for source.
4. (1828) DAVID WALKER, “THE NECESSITY OF A GENERAL UNION AMONG US”
David Walker (1796-1830) is considered one of the most radical abolitionists and Black Nationalists, best known for his revolutionary pamphlet, Walker’s Appeal, in Four Ariicles: together with a preamble, to the Coloured Citizens of the World, but in Particular and Very expressly to those of the United States of America. This twenty-six-page pamphlet was the first call for armed insurrection against slavery. In this address to free Blacks, he calls for organization and unity among African Americans. Click here for address.
Or, instead, you can also listen to ONE of the readings below from Walker's Appeal.
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5. (1832) MARIA W. STEWART ADVOCATES EDUCATION FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN
In 1832, Maria W. Stewart delivered the first public lecture ever given by any American woman. Her speech calls on black women to acquire equality through education. You will read and see more of her speeches for this week's homework. Click here to read an address from her today.
6. (1837) THEODORE S. WRIGHT, “PREJUDICE AGAINST THE COLORED MAN”
Reverend Theodore S. Wright was born to free parents in Providence, Rhode Island. He was pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New York City and a conductor on the Underground Railroad. He challenged audiences to notice the racial prejudice directed against free Blacks in the North. Click here to read his address.
7. (1838) JAMES MCCUNE SMITH, “THE ABOLITION OF SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN THE FRENCH AND BRITISH COLONIES”
James McCune Smith (1813-1865) was a prominent physician and abolitionist. When no American college would accept him, he enrolled in Glasgow University in Scotland where he earned three degrees including a medical degree. In New York City, he had his own medical practice and opened a pharmacy. Click here to read his address.
For more about the great doctor, watch the video. You must still read the speech (or at least parts of it in the time you have during class).
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8. (1841) FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “THE CHURCH AND PREJUDICE”
Frederick Douglass was perhaps the most renowned orator of his day. In this speech, three years after he escaped slavery and went to New Bedford, Massachusetts, he talked about racial discrimination in Northern churches. Click here for his address.
9. (1843) HENRY HIGHLAND GARNET, “AN ADDRESS TO THE SLAVES OF THE UNITED STATES”
Henry Highland Garnet was a newspaper editor and pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Troy, New York. In his “An Address to the Slaves of the United States” at the National Negro Convention of 1843, he called for open rebellion. Click here for address.
10. (1845) FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “MY SLAVE EXPERIENCE IN MARYLAND”
Frederick Douglass was perhaps the most renowned orator of his day. He described his early life in this address titled, “My Slave Experience in Maryland “in 1845 on New York City. Douglass had just completed his first, most famous autobiography called The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Click here for the address.
11. (1850) LUCY STANTON, “A PLEA FOR THE OPPRESSED”
Lucy Stanton was probably the first African American woman to complete four years of college at Oberlin. As president of the Oberlin Ladies Literary Society, Stanton gave the commencement address on August 27, 1850 calling upon her fellow women students to embrace the anti-slavery campaign. Click here for the address.
12. (1850) REV. JERMAIN WESLEY LOGUEN, “I WON’T OBEY THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW”
A month after the infamous Fugitive Slave Act was passed by Congress, Reverend Jermain Wesley Loguen (1813-1872), a fugitive slave from Tennessee, persuaded his new hometown of Syracuse, New York, to declare that city a refuge for liberated slaves. The Fugitive Slave Act meant that any escaped slave in the U.S. could be returned forcibly to slavery, even in the northern so-called Free States. Following his address that, the meeting voted 395 to 96 in favor of making Syracuse an “open city” for fugitive slaves. Click here for address.
13. (1852) FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “WHAT, TO THE SLAVE, IS THE FOURTH OF JULY”
Frederick Douglass was perhaps the most renowned orator of his day. This is one of his oft cited speeches. Click here for address or watch a reading below.
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14. (1857) FRANCES ELLEN WATKINS, “LIBERTY FOR SLAVES”
Frances Ellen Watkins was born of free parents in Baltimore in 1825. She was one of the most noted speakers on the subject of slavery as well as a novelist and poet. Click here for address.
Or, watch one of the videos below of someone reading a speech from Frances Ellen Watkins below (these are different speeches).
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15. (1863) FREDERICK DOUGLASS, MEN OF COLOR, TO ARMS!
Three months after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation went into effect abolishing slavery, Frederick Douglass gave a speech in Rochester, New York. This speech, “Men of Color, To Arms!” urged African American men to join the Union Army. Click here for the speech.
16. For a list of speeches made by numerous African Americans elected to Congress in the period immediately following slavery, click here. This period in the United States, called RECONSTRUCTION, from 1865-1877, promised equity, equality, and political representation to Black communities at the time. Huge strides in what we would today call diversity and inclusion today were achieved; but by 1877, all progress was rescinded back to almost nothing with Jim Crow rule and new expressions of white supremacy.
Current, Secular Sound of the Spirituals: The Hamiltones
(Notice the clapping & stomping syncopation--- Fisk singers removed this aspect... the Hamiltones are keeping the traditional sound here.)
(Notice the clapping & stomping syncopation--- Fisk singers removed this aspect... the Hamiltones are keeping the traditional sound here.)
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